Dictionary Keys question

[Ryszard Szopa]

On Jan 31, 12:08 am, Dustan <DustanGro... at gmail.com> wrote:

> The underlying order is a result, in part, of the key's hash codes*.
> Integers are hash coded by their integer values, therefore, they
> appear in numeric order. Strings, however, use an algorithm that
> ensures as unique hash codes as possible. Notice the difference:
>
> >>> map(hash,
>
>     ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h',
>      1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8])
> [-468864544, -340864157, -212863774, -84863387, 43136996, 171137383,
> 299137766, 427138153, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
>
> * emphasis on the "in part". Other factors include the amount of
> memory space available, order added, the current size of the
> underlying hash table, etc.

BTW, can anybody explain me how is the hash function implemented in
Python?

Cheers,

    -- Richard